Thursday, July 23, 2015

"IRISH MEDIA IS A BIG MICKEY INDUSTRY"

Back in April, The Media Show on RTE had a segment about the shocking level of sexism that exists in Irish Media. Dr Tom Cloonan and freelance journalist Alison O Connor presented research and personal experience to back up this fact.

I have written before about the appalling state of Irish radio with regard to women's voices but the fact is that sexism exists across all media organisations in this country.

Therefore not only is our political system totally skewed so also is the media that reports it.

Gender balance in media is not some lofty aspiration to be achieved by a slow change of mindsets and culture, it is an urgent problem that needs to be fixed NOW.

Is there sexism at
play in the how women are treated within media organisations?

Q. Tom, do you think
there is particular macho or masculine culture within the media?

A. I suppose I am coming from military background. As an
army officer and as a captain I did my doctoral research (PHD) on the
experiences of women in Ireland’s armed forces. The military would be
constructed as a very hyper masculine environment with a very robust canteen
kind of culture in it. Unfortunately the research I conducted revealed unacceptably
high levels of discrimination, harassment and particularly bullying and sexual
violence against women in the army.

After I retired, quite by accident, with the twin tower
attacks and so on, I found myself working in the journalism space and, I
suppose, coming from the military, I had expected or I suppose I had this idea
that media would be progressive and would have an equality friendly environment
and would be very different from the military. In fact I found and find that
many workplace settings within the media would make the army’s eyes water in
terms of the masculine, casual sexism and quite a lot of bullying in this
environment. That was both an unexpected and disappointing finding on my part.

Q. Would that be your experience Alison?

A. Absolutely Conor. To put it another way the media is a
big Mickey industry. It’s so male dominated. I did an informal ring around
today. If you take, for instance, each day a news conference takes place to
decide what sets the agenda what’s important, what’s setting the agenda for the
next day-80%-90% of the people at that are male. These are also the people who
would be writing editorials lecturing politicians or others in industry for
having a poor gender balance or for not doing their bit and I suppose the worst
is that they would often consider themselves to be pretty right on and if not a
feminist a friend to the feminist or to the female. I think it comes from the fact
that the media is a very competitive industry. It is quite a selfish industry
in that in many ways you are trying to get that scoop, you are working on your
own; the hours are very anti social. I work freelance now and I work from home
so I’m observing it a little bit from the other side. There’s very little
effort, from what I can see, to accommodate women with children who want to
stay in their jobs. It’s part of the macho culture to stay late and being seen
to stay late. It doesn’t make it easy and I see friends my age who really want
to stay in their jobs and who are immensely talented and would be a huge loss
to the industry and I see no effort whatsoever to accommodate them in any way in
terms of trying to mix both work and being a parent.

Q Tom, you had a point to make there

A. Sure. I’m a journalist in practice but I also do a lot of
radio and TV so I have a footprint in all the major Irish media organisations.
I have observed the workplace culture in each of those settings. The other
thing I will say is in my capacity, I am now regarded as a whistleblower. That
was not a term in use when I did my PhD. Over the years, whenever I appear in
the media, like when there is a TV documentary or a radio documentary as there
was here in RTE on the series Whistleblowers I have been contacted by female
journalists in Ireland who have repeated similar stories of harassment, sexual
harassment and bullying. I think in relation to the status and role of female
journalists within the Irish media. This is a particular Irish phenomenon. I
think there is a requirement for major investigation and further analysis in
order that we remove those obstacles.

Q, There is an issue there Alison that you referred
earlier-if these sort of allegations were made, if this sort of thing was to
happen in any other sector it would be very much seen as and would be the duty
of the fourth estate to hold the powers that be to account.

A. It’s something funny to do with journalists. I do not
know if we see that journalism is a vocation or something. Even if you walk into
the average newsroom it’s been my experience that a lot of the time even the
desks and the chairs and the computers are pretty crap. Journalists don’t
collectively look for better conditions. It’s as if we are being Superman or
saving the world. It extends a bit to that, to do with the conditions. A
particular thing in relation to Leinster House- It’s like a boy’s boarding
school. It’s overwhelmingly male. We have such a poor representation of female
TDs. The majority of women you see in Leinster House are either parliamentary
assistants or catering staff or ushers. It is testosterone laden. There are
very few places where you could replicate that. There are very few institutions
that are so absolutely and immensely male.

Q. Even at a low level Alison and I hesitate to use that
term, in preparing for the programme I contacted some female journalists who
are prominent within the media. Some have never experienced sexism. Some have
but say they take it on the chin. You put up with it.

Alison: If you have an exclusively male environment, if
decisions are taken at a level where it is testosterone driven with no
oestrogen feeding in then the balance is all wrong.

Q What needs to be done then Tom?

A. If you look at the arm forces, an organisation that
operates in very difficult circumstances in Golan Heights and Syria and so on.
After my research was published and investigated by an independent government
enquiry they developed a mission statement with regard to equality. They also have
a very strong dignity in the workplace charter. It’s incumbent on the NUJ and
all the media organisations that they put in place very clear and explicit
policies, goals and objectives that are measureable with regard to the
participation and promotion of women and female voices at all levels in our
media. That would be a start.

Q Alison?

A. I know it would be difficult to implement but I would
favour quotas for current affairs panels and for the experts- the people that
programmes bring on to tell us what we should think about an issue on any given
day be it domestic or international. That’s the way things will change Things
have improved. There is now more awareness. An argument you will hear from
senior people in the media and which is
trotted out is that listeners don’t like female voices. I have never seen that
research. They are not used to listening to women’s voices. On certain radio
schedules on certain stations you can go for hours without hearing a female
voice

.

Tom: Research in International military scene shows that
women’s voices are actually the most compelling and attractive voices. In
cockpit prompts in fighter aircrafts they use the woman’s voice as they believe
we are more genetically disposed and hardwired to listening to our mothers.
There is no research that shows that female voices are not attractive but there
is plenty of research to show that sexist men will often quote false science to
support sexist misogynistic views.